Unfortunately, the movie adaptation of "Fast Food Nation" failed to convey most, if any, of those messages concisely or convincingly.

The documentary "Food, Inc." is the film "Fast Food" should have been. It's powerful, disturbing stuff.

However, you might not want to eat before you see it. Or afterward, for that matter. …

Among the experts director Robert Kenner interviewed for this film are Schlosser (who served as a co-producer) and Michael Pollan, a journalism professor and author of the book "An Omnivore's Dilemma."

Schlosser and the movie argue that a turning point in diminishing food-industry standards came when drive-in restaurants became drive-throughs.

At that point, restaurants turned into food "assembly lines," which stressed uniformity and speed — or quantity over quality.

But the film doesn't just target the food corporations and growers. According to the movie, legislators and governmental groups that are supposed to be responsible for food-industry reforms include former and current members of the corporations they're supposed to oversee.

And Kenner's movie is unafraid to name names and point fingers at some fairly high-profile targets. (McDonald's, Monsanto, Perdue and Tyson are all either name-checked or get accusations made about some of their business practices.)

The film also expresses some skepticism about the organic foods industry. (The high prices of those products mean that they're not affordable or convenient for lower-income families.)

Admittedly, the movie gets bogged down in a section dealing with food-related health scares — recent E. coli outbreaks among them. But overall, it's some serious food for thought.

Popular Comments

In Michael Pollan’s book, “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s
Eye View of the World,” he details what has happened to potatoes. They
are genetically modified by Monsanto, and saturated with pesticides and chemical
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3:43 p.m. July 16, 2009

Top comment

Good Book

I agree. I read that book for my english class a few semester ago. It really
opened my eyes to what really happens to some of our food before we eat it. It
made me much more health concious and concerned about eating more natural foods.

11:19 a.m. July 17, 2009

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Andrew

The one thing that has made all this growth in the fast food industry possible:
illegal immigration from Mexico. A ready supply of labor, and better yet cheap
labor, is to an industry what heroin is to a junkie. Same goes for the
previously
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